arXiv subjects

Min Yan

Publications and source records attributed to Min Yan.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Field enhancement at metallic interfaces due to quantum confinement

We point out an apparently overlooked consequence of the boundary conditions obeyed by the electric displacement vector at air-metal interfaces: the continuity of the normal component combined with the quantum mechanical penetration of the electron gas in the air implies the existence of a surface on which the dielectric function vanishes. This, in turn, leads to an enhancement of the normal component of the total electric field. We study this effect for a planar metal surface, with the inhomogenous electron density accounted for by a Jellium model. We also illustrate the effect for equilateral triangular nanoislands via numerical solutions of the appropriate Maxwell equations, and show that the field enhancement is several orders of magnitude larger than what the conventional theory predicts.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Replacement of fixed sets for compact group actions: The 2ρtheorem

If M and N are equivariantly homotopy equivalent G-manifolds, then the fixed sets M^G and N^G are also homotopy equivalent. The replacement problem asks the converse question: If F is homotopy equivalent to the fixed set M^G, is F = N^G for a G-manifold equivariantly homotopy equivalent to M? We prove that for locally linear actions on topological or PL manifolds by compact Lie groups, the replacement is always possible if the normal bundle of the fixed set is twice of a complex bundle over a 1-skeleton of the fixed set. Moreover, we also study some specific examples, where the answer to the replacement problem ranges from always possible to the rigidity.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

Functoriality of Isovariant Homotopy Classification

It is a deep fact that the homotopy classification of topological manifolds is convariantly functorial. In other words, a map from a topological manifold M to another N naturally induces a map from the structure set S(M) to S(N). We extend the fact to the isovariant structure set S_G(M, rel M_s) of G-equivariant topological manifolds isovariantly homotopy equivalent to M and restricts to homormorphism on the singular part M_s, consisting of those points fixed by some non-trivial elements of G. We further explain that the structure set S_G(M, rel M_s) is the fibre of the assembly map for the generalized homology theory with the L-spectrum as the coefficient. This relates our result to the Farrell-Jones Conjecture for L-theory.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

Hollow-core infrared fiber incorporating metal-wire metamaterial

Infrared (IR) light is considered important for short-range wireless communication, thermal sensing, spectroscopy, material processing, medical surgery, astronomy etc. However, IR light is in general much harder to transport than optical light or microwave radiation. Existing hollow-core IR waveguides usually use a layer of metallic coating on the inner wall of the waveguide. Such a metallic layer, though reflective, still absorbs guided light significantly due to its finite Ohmic loss, especially for transverse-magnetic (TM) light. In this paper, we show that metal-wire based metamaterials may serve as an efficient TM reflector, reducing propagation loss of the TM mode by two orders of magnitude. By further imposing a conventional metal cladding layer, which reflects specifically transverse-electric (TE) light, we can potentially obtain a low-loss hollow-core fiber. Simulations confirm that loss values for several low-order modes are comparable to the best results reported so far.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Achieving Perfect Imaging beyond Passive and Active Obstacles by a Transformed Bilayer Lens

A bilayer lens is proposed based on transformation optics. It is shown that Pendry's perfect lens, perfect bilayer lens made of indefinite media, and the concept of compensated media are well unified under the scope of the proposed bilayer lens. Using this concept, we also demonstrate how one is able to achieve perfect imaging beyond passive objects or active sources which are present in front of the lens.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Cylindrical Superlens by a Coordinate Transformation

Cylinder-shaped perfect lens deduced from the coordinate transformation method is proposed. The previously reported perfect slab lens is noticed to be a limiting form of the cylindrical lens when the inner radius approaches infinity with respect to the lens thickness. Connaturality between a cylindrical lens and a slab lens is affirmed by comparing their eigenfield transfer functions. We numerically confirm the subwavelength focusing capability of such a cylindrical lens with consideration of material imperfection. Compared to a slab lens, a cylindrical lens has several advantages, including finiteness in cross-section, and ability in lensing with magnification or demagnification. Immediate applications of such a cylindrical lens can be in high-resolution imaging and lithography technologies. In addition, its invisibility property suggests that it may be valuable for non-invasive electromagnetic probing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Necessary and sufficient conditions for reflectionless transformation media in an isotropic and homogenous background

It has been known that, keeping the outer boundary coordinates intact before and after a coordinate transformation is a sufficient condition for obtaining a reflectionless transformation medium. Here we prove that it is also a necessary condition for reflectionless transformation media in an isotropic and homogenous background. Our analytical results show that the outer boundary coordinates of a reflectionless transformation medium must be the same as the original coordinates with a combination of rotation and displacement, which is equivalent to situation that the boundary coordinates are kept intact before and after transformation.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Non-magnetic simplified cylindrical cloak with suppressed zero-th order scattering

A new type of simplified cloaks with matched exterior boundaries is proposed. The cloak uses non-magnetic material for the TM polarization and can function with a relatively thin thickness. It is shown that the $zero^{th}$ order scattering of such cloak is dominant among all cylindrical scattering terms. A gap is added at the cloak's inner surface to eliminate the zero-th order scattering, through the mechanism of scattering resonance. The reduction in scattering is relatively smooth, indicating that the proposed scattering reduction method has good tolerance to perturbations. Numerical simulations also confirm that the proposed structure has very low scattering.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Coordinate transformation makes perfect invisibility cloak with arbitrary shape

By investigating wave properties at cloak boundaries, invisibility cloaks with arbitrary shape constructed by general coordinate transformations are confirmed to be perfectly invisible to the external incident wave. The differences between line transformed cloaks and point transformed cloaks are discussed. The fields in the cloak medium are found analytically to be related to the fields in the original space via coordinate transformation functions. At the exterior boundary of the cloak, it is shown that no reflection is excited even though the permittivity and permeability do not always have a perfect matched layer form. While at the inner boundary, no reflection is excited either, and in particular no field can penetrate into the cloaked region. However, for the inner boundary of any line transformed cloak, the permittivity and permeability in a specific tangential direction are always required to be infinitely large. Furthermore, the field discontinuity at the inner boundary always exists; the surface current is induced to make this discontinuity self-consistent. For a point transformed cloak, it does not experience such problems. The tangential fields at the inner boundary are all zero, implying no field discontinuity exists

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Cylindrical Invisibility Cloak with Simplified Material Parameters is Inherently Visible

It was proposed that perfect invisibility cloaks can be constructed for hiding objects from electromagnetic illumination (Pendry et al., Science 312, p. 1780). The cylindrical cloaks experimentally demonstrated (Schurig et al., Science 314, p. 997) and proposed (Cai et al., Nat. Photon. 1, p. 224) have however simplified material parameters in order to facilitate easier realization as well as to avoid infinities in optical constants. Here we show that the cylindrical cloaks with simplified material parameters inherently allow the zeroth-order cylindrical wave to pass through the cloak as if the cloak is made of a homogeneous isotropic medium, and thus visible. To all high-order cylindrical waves, our numerical simulation suggests that the simplified cloak inherits some properties of the ideal cloak, but finite scatterings exist.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2007

Confirmation of Cylindrical Perfect Invisibility Cloak Using Fourier-Bessel Analysis

A cylindrical wave expansion method is developed to obtain the scattering field for an ideal two-dimensional cylindrical invisibility cloak. A near-ideal model of the invisibility cloak is set up to solve the boundary problem at the inner boundary of the cloak shell. We confirm that a cloak with the ideal material parameters is a perfect invisibility cloak by systematically studying the change of the scattering coefficients from the near-ideal case to the ideal one. However, due to the slow convergence of the zero$^{th}$ order scattering coefficients, a tiny perturbation on the cloak would induce a noticeable field scattering and penetration.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2001

Observation of absorptive photon switching by quantum interference

We report an experimental demonstration of photon switching by quantum interference in a four-level atomic system proposed by Harris and Yamamoto (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3611 (1998)). Quantum interference inhibits single-photon absorption but enhances third-order, two-photon type absorption in the four-level system. We have observed greatly enhanced nonlinear absorption in the four-level system realized with cold 87Rb atoms and demonstrated fast switching of the nonlinear absorption with a pulsed pump laser.

physics.atom-ph↗